Florida Gators Men’s Basketball Coach Mike White (Act 1)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -It has been a transitional offseason for head coach Mike White and the Florida Gators men’s basketball program. White had to replace four players who left through the NCAA transfer portal and also hired two assistant coaches. Florida are looking to return to the NCAA tournament following their appearance in last season’s second round and their 15-10 record. TV20 Gator Insider Steve Russell recently had the opportunity to chat with White about the changes to his program in Part 1 of this two-part interview series.

(Steve Russell):

“It’s been a while since we’ve spoken to Gator’s men’s basketball coach Mike White, you’ve been a little busy since the end of last year. Mike really when you look back at the end of the year so far, what an adjustment. Are things starting to go back to how they used to be? “

(Mike Blanc):

“Yeah, I think it’s a process to get back to normal Steve. We are going in this direction, we have a certain normality. We start with short practice workouts that the NCAA allows us to do now in the summers. We’re in the process of recruiting, we’ll continue to release five of the next six weeks as staff, and we finally have a full staff in place as well. “

(Steve Russell):

“Talk about your two assistants, they seem to be really good basketball guys. Why did you hire them, what happened in this process? “

(Mike Blanc):

“There are a bunch of factors and attributes that you are looking for in terms of tactician, experience, other coaches you may have worked with and have had experience with in the company. . As a mentor, as a recruiter, as a playing time decision, we hit the target with Akeem Miskdeen and Erik Pastrana. Erik is from Oklahoma State and Mike Boynton, and Akeem the same. He’s a state guy from FAU. He’s a great human being, and a guy I know very well.

(Steve Russell):

“Every school Mike goes through this transfer portal business. Is this how it’s gonna be from now on?

(Mike Blanc):

“Absolutely. I don’t see it being picked up. It’s in that direction, and it’s in that direction with momentum. I think it will balance out after a few years and we won’t see the drastic number that we’ve seen this spring. But that’s going to be a bigger factor in recruiting from now on. We had four in the portal and we got four out of the portal. And Steve in the SEC, there are now 81 in the portal Again, I expect this to slow down a bit, but that’s going to be a factor from now on in terms of your decisions in the spring when it comes to recruiting.

(Steve Russell):

“You’ve been to the NCAA tournament since you’ve been here and it’s a great accomplishment. Some fans would like to see more. But as you assess where your program is, are you satisfied? “

(Mike Blanc):

“No, never. We could have had a much bigger year last year. We could have come up with a few more games and not been satisfied, and if you are, you are wrong in my opinion. That is first and foremost. a matter of growth. How can we improve as a team, as staff, offensively, defensively, recruiting. We want to win a national championship here. This turned out to be done obviously with coach Donovan and his staff. We have to continue to get there and move forward, and move forward, and become a little more effective offensively and defensively, get a little more production from our bench and gain a little more experience. We have a little more. of offseason experience, I think we’ll be an older team.

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